Kernel crash or memory corruption via huge-PMD races
Published Sep 18, 2024 · Updated Aug 5, 2026
Race condition in Linux userfaultfd handling allows local users to crash the kernel or corrupt memory through huge-PMD races. In mm/userfaultfd.c, mfill_atomic() checks pmd_trans_huge() outside a stable lock and mistakes migration, devmap, or replaced PMDs for page tables, reaching BUG_ON() or writing a PTE into non-page-table memory. An unprivileged local process can register its own mapping and race UFFDIO_COPY or UFFDIO_ZEROPAGE against PMD teardown or migration; confirmed outcomes include a repeatable kernel oops, while older kernels expose page-table read and write primitives.
Summary
What happened
Race condition in Linux userfaultfd handling allows local users to crash the kernel or corrupt memory through huge-PMD races. In mm/userfaultfd.c, mfill_atomic() checks pmd_trans_huge() outside a stable lock and mistakes migration, devmap, or replaced PMDs for page tables, reaching BUG_ON() or writing a PTE into non-page-table memory. An unprivileged local process can register its own mapping and race UFFDIO_COPY or UFFDIO_ZEROPAGE against PMD teardown or migration; confirmed outcomes include a repeatable kernel oops, while older kernels expose page-table read and write primitives.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2024-46787
- Published
- Sep 18, 2024
- Updated
- Aug 5, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- T1068
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Sep 18, 2024CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Aug 5, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=4.3
- Affected versionversion=c1a4de99fada21e2e9251e52cbb51eff5aadc757 <3c6b4bcf37845c9359aed926324bed66bdd2448d
- Affected versionversion=c1a4de99fada21e2e9251e52cbb51eff5aadc757 <71c186efc1b2cf1aeabfeff3b9bd5ac4c5ac14d8
- Affected versionversion=c1a4de99fada21e2e9251e52cbb51eff5aadc757 <98cc18b1b71e23fe81a5194ed432b20c2d81a01a
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
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Attacks
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Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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